The success of last week’s Raspberry Margarita Poptails inspired me to buy a new Popsicle mold. This new beauty uses wooden sticks, which is nice because then I can make a bunch and pass them out to friends, and not wait to get the plastic sticks back. If you’re in Austin, they sell this mold at Wheastville for about $15.

I pretty much want to make every poptail recipe from Endless Simmer, but the one that I was most eager to attempt is the White Russian Pudding Pops. I wasn’t too keen on making my own pudding, and found this mix that doesn’t use gelatin at Wheatsville:

Instructions: I prepared the pudding as per the instructions on the box. When I make these again, I’ll use that extra 1/4 cup of milk, so that one batch fills the 10 pop molds (when I only used 2 cups of milk, the batch made eight and a half pops). I whisked the pudding mix and milk over medium heat, pretty much constantly until it thickened and just began to bubble. At that point, I turned the heat off, and added the Vodka and Kahlua. I mixed it all together until smooth.

At this point, the pudding mixture was delicious, but still pretty warm. I filled a big bowl with ice water and put my pot inside the ice bath, and continued to stir the pudding. Once the pudding was only slightly warm, I filled the pop molds (don’t let it get too cold – the pudding will start to set and be difficult to pour into the molds).

The pops have been in the freezer for a few hours now, and are setting up quite nicely. I can’t wait to pull them out of the molds so that I can make a Black Russian batch using the chocolate pudding. We’ll be bringing the pops to Maker Monday tomorrow, so I’ll let you know how they are received.

A note about Smith’s Vodka: Bug has good friends from college, Joe and Kelly, who moved to Bastrop with their two boys, a few years ago. They are such an amazing family – they have a fantastic garden, dozens of hens, a part share in a milk cow, goats, bees, and all the related skills this urban homesteader dreams about acquiring. Joe’s latest professional endeavor is as VP of Operations for Bone Spirits, makers of Smith’s Vodka. We got a bottle early on, and have really enjoyed it. Unlike most other distillers, Bone Spirits gets grains from local farmers and do their own mash to turn them into alcohol (other distillers get high-proof, commercial grade ethanol in bulk, then re-distill it). We are excited for Joe and to support Bone Spirits’ farm to bottle approach. They also have a Moonshine (un-aged, white whiskey), and an aged Corn Whiskey, under the name Fitch’s Goat. Check back for some Fitch’s Goat cocktail and poptail recipes soon!